Campy Dishing Tool Correction

[cmbicycles]

I have a Campy dishing tool purchased on the forum, but the feet aren't parallel. It's not like it won't still work as a tool to compare two sides of the wheel, but being that one of the pads doesn't sit flush against the rim bugs my ocd... and it isn't a cheap tool (relatively speaking).

Any ideas on how to align the feet so they are both perpendicular to the center screw? It's aluminum so maybe could bend it, without breaking? I could take it to a machine shop, but it's likely cheaper to buy another.

Picture taken with one foot clamped flat to a level to show gap on the other side.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180710/bf4cc755bdc80af30a562a7ffbb9972a.jpg

[Hindmost]

Vise, big-#@! crescent wrench.

[cmbicycles]

This is made of much softer aluminum than I thought. I was thinking it would something pretty hard, and therefore a bit brittle, for a reference tool... but its not.

A reference wheel, a couple clamps, a big wrench, and some feeler gauges and it appears to be back in business.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180710/378e7e8f6fa1f68e0e98fed61330a146.jpg

[Hindmost]

The same way we used to adjust brake caliper toe-in.

[pbarry]

No fair figuring this out before well all contribute several pages suggesting a myriad of ways to fix. ;). Good job anyways! :beer:

[cmbicycles]

No fair figuring this out before well all contribute several pages suggesting a myriad of ways to fix. ;). Good job anyways! [emoji481]
We can still take a few pages to come up with other ways to do it... or tell me why my way was wrong, or how someone else would have done better in the glory days. ;) We could also debate whether or not Sram/Shimano dishing tools would need "serviced", or be serviceable at all, or if I should have used a tubular wheel as a reference wheel while straightening it.

It was surprisingly easy to bend it back into shape, not the material properties I was expecting at all. It was one of those times when I make a post while standing in the workshop... then hmm what will happen if... huh, that was easy. Oh well.

[pbarry]

We can still take a few pages to come up with other ways to do it... or tell me why my way was wrong, or how someone else would have done better in the glory days. ;) We could also debate whether or not Sram/Shimano dishing tools would need "serviced", or be serviceable at all, or if I should have used a tubular wheel as a reference wheel while straightening it.

It was surprisingly easy to bend it back into shape, not the material properties I was expecting at all. It was one of those times when I make a post while standing in the workshop... then hmm what will happen if... huh, that was easy. Oh well.

Haha! We'll try to stretch it out tho. Shimano might have made a dishing tool back in the AX era, and I'd bet they we're high quality if they did. Shram, no, never made a precision tool of any kind, (let alone a whole set that came in a wooden box), and I certainly wouldn't tweak one if it wasn't right. Who knows what would happen! :eek:

[zmudshark]

I'd like to add that if you would have bought the VAR tool this never would have happened.

No one makes tools like the French.:rolleyes:

[cmbicycles]

I'd like to add that if you would have bought the VAR tool this never would have happened.

No one makes tools like the French.:rolleyes:
I actually have the Var tool as well, the longer contact pads are nice for some things but it feels more clumsy to use for whatever reason. I prefer the feel of the Campy... perhaps because I learned wheel building using the Campy in my first shop job (worked in that shop almost 10 years), it feels more natural for me.